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#1 link at AOSHQ says it was a commander in the Qods forces: Al-Manar did not disclose the name of the Iranian official and only described him as the head of an Iranian agency responsible for "rebuilding Lebanon." According to the report, the incident occurred on Syrian soil when the Iranian official was on his way back from Damascus to Lebanon.
An Iranian independent news website - mashreghnews.ir - reported earlier that the name of the Iranian official was Gen. Hassan Shateri, a commander in the Guard's Quds Force. The report said the attack was carried out by "mercenaries of the Zionist regime," however the credibility of the report is unclear.

The report added that Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, the head of the Guard's Quds Force, visited Shateri's family to express his condolences. The website did not provide additional details about his death.

The Quds Force is Iran's main organization dealing with international terrorist activity with the cooperation of several different terrorist organizations which are backed by Iran. In the past, Israeli intelligence officials described Soleimani as the central figure in Iran's terrorist network.

#8 It's always good to hear of Iranians taking casualties, for a change. I wonder how many they have taken since the start of hostilities in Syria. In theory, Syria ought not run out of manpower. Iran certainly has more than enough warm bodies to bring to the fight.

#10 the total of Hezbollah plus Basij is probably below 1000; however, there may be some unreported

We had 500K GI's in-country during the Vietnam War, at a time when the population was around 200m. Iran probably has the economy to support 200K troops (out of 20m odd military-age Iranian males) in Syria, assuming they're equipped mainly with light weaponry. The only issue is that this would alienate the large contingent of Sunnis that continue to support Assad.